The Industrial Revolution erupts into total warfare against the magocratic British Empire. As the war escalates, an ancient cycle of annihilation prepares to start anew. The philosophies of the Enlightenment undergo a trial by fire against dark magic.

The Redcoats came at dawn, as they had always done.
The desperate, entrenched troops around Dublin were outnumbered by
the Royal Thaumaturgical Corps and their Samsaran auxiliaries. Within
a matter of days, the British had surrounded the city. Redcoats,
backed by Welsh and Scottish magi, lead the charge. Samsaran
behemoths followed behind them, with mahouts manning the cannons
mounted on the beasts. Samsaran skyspears and British artillery
filled the air. The familiar shriek of Congreave rockets caused the
already disheartened defenders to lose morale. The steel walls of
Dublin, the trenches and bunkers, surround the city, and the
anti-aircraft defenses around the city held out for a number of days.

After the third week of the siege, the British forces
pulled back. The citizens of Dublin, cautious at first, came out of
their bunkers and trenches, and some started celebrating. A
perceptive few ominously noted the increase in dark clouds. After a
day of such phenomena, the storm began. British thaumaturges could be
heard, chanting over distant hills. Thunder cracked, and lightning
bled the gray sky white. Rain poured down, and the now-shivering
citizens found few shelters from the storm. The River Liffey began to
overflow its banks, and the annihilation of Dublin had begun.

Far away from the dying city, a last ironclad escaped
into the North Atlantic. Onboard were a handful of political refugees
from Eireland, and two young children. The two terrified youths had
been taken from their parents, and stuffed into a cramped steerage
full of pitiful refugees. Bonnie and Sean Ó Conaill had been
taken from Dublin several nights before. Now, without parents, on a
ship full of strangers, they were content to fall asleep in a dark
corner of the cargo hold. Unknown to them, a former privateer was
watching them sleep. Having rescued the youths at his late
President's bidding, Edward Teach knew it would be a long and
distant voyage. The fact all they likely ever knew had been destroyed
would be a fact they would find out soon enough.

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